Risk of suicide and related adverse outcomes after exposure to a suicide prevention programme in the US Air Force: cohort study

This new article in the British Medical Journal (v 327, 7428, pp 1376) looks at the efficacy of a suicide prevention program in the US Airforce, and makes observations about how there results can be extrapolated to the wider community.

Latest ABS data on suicide

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its latest data on deaths by suicide in Australia. The report covers data for deaths recorded up to 2002. It should be noted that "[a]ll suicide data in this publication are based on year of registration", rather than the actual year of death and must have been ruled as suicide by the coroner.

Schizophrenia: early detection study

This story from ABC radio discusses new research that uses a faulty sense of smell to the predict the onset of schizophrenia. The research was done by a team at the Unversity of Melbourne. The research was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. You can access the abstract here, but may need to contact your library to access the full article.

Australian Alcohol Indicators, 1990-2001: Patterns of alcohol use and related harms for Australian states and territories

"This report presents health, road safety, industry and survey data to describe trends in risky alcohol use and serious alcohol-related harms for all Australian states and territories. It has been guided by principles set out in the World Health Organization’s International Guide for Monitoring Alcohol Consumption and Related Harm (WHO, 2000).

Trends in alcohol-caused deaths and hospitalisations for all states and territories have not previously been reported using consistent and comparable methods. A comparison between levels of risky alcohol use reported in the 1998 and 2001 National Drug Strategy Household (NDSH) surveys is also presented for the first time.

The present report builds on and updates five earlier Statistical Bulletins from the National Alcohol Indicators Project (NAIP) concerning alcohol-caused deaths and hospitalisations, road crashes, alcohol-related violence and levels and patterns of drinking in Australia."

The latest edition of the Kids Helpline newsletter is now available. It includes articles on:

• Parental Separation - Implications for boys' help-seeking


• Online Counselling - Responding to young people's feedback


• Enhancing More Young People's Lives Through Peer Skills


• Protecting Children From Abuse - It is everybody's business and much more

Upcoming Events....
East Metropolitan Youth Suicide Prevention Network
Yorgum Aboriginal Counselling Service
Darrell Henry, Psychologist and Counsellor with Yorgum Aboriginal Counselling Service will share his experience of the impact of suicide on family, friends and community from a personal and professional perspective.
When: Tuesday 2nd December 2003
Where: Classroom B WASON Bldg.
151 Wellington Street
PERTH WA 6000
Time: 9- 10.30 presentation
10.30 – 11.00am Morning tea and networking
RSVP: Thursday 27th November
to Michaela on 9224 1339
or email – michaela.vardaro@health.wa.gov.au

Doodling away the blues - 10/11/2003
This story from ABC Science looks at the effectiveness of doodling as an alternative to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. The research is being undertake by a group at the University of Technology, Sydney. More information can be accessed here.

Identity formation, youth suicide and First Nations
The Culture and Congnition Lab at the University of Victoria (Canada) has a collection of publications available on the web. Some of these relate to the the issue of identity and suicide on indigenous youth in Canada. Some very interesting reading.

Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services in Australia 2001-02: Report on the National Minimum Data Set
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a new report looking at drug and alcohol treatment services in Australia.

"Statistics in the report cover 121,000 treatment episodes across 505 agencies, focusing on clients using publicly funded treatment services, the types of drug problems for which treatment is sought, and the types of treatment they received. The report is part of the monitoring and evaluation components of the Australian Government's National Drug Strategy.

Two-thirds of alcohol and other drug treatment episodes involved male clients and most treatment episodes (61%) were for clients aged between 20 and 39 years of age.

Counselling was the most common form of main treatment received by clients (39% of treatment episodes), followed by withdrawal management (detoxification) (19%), assessment only (15%) and information and education only (10%)."

FDA Public Health Advisory - Reports of Suicidality in Pediatric Patients Being Treated with Antidepressant Medications for Major Depressive Disorder
This bulletin from the US Food and Drug Administration discusses concerns about the suicidality of patients being treated with certain anti-depressants. The FDA also have a Talk Paper and FAQ about Paxil (known as Aropax in Australia).

The World Today on ABC radio ran a story on Aropax in August.

Have your say about the WA Health System ….

"The Health Consumers' Council of WA is conducting a statewide community consultation during November 2003 as a part of the current health reform project. The Health Consumers' Council is an independent organisation that acts as the community voice on health.

The consultation will give you the chance to share some personal stories about the WA health system and focus on some of the key issues that are currently under review by the Health Reform Committee, like:

• How can the pathways between primary, secondary & tertiary care be made easier for patients?


• Should tertiary hospitals be ‘centres of excellence’ and stop unnecessary duplication?


• How should resources be allocated?"

See the website for more information.

Sprituality and Suicide Prevention
Following on from the SPA conference this year ABC radio has run a series of highlighting some of the papers presented at the conference.
At the Edge of the Abyss intereviews David Tacey and a number of others.

"Where does spirituality fit among the range of factors that might protect people who are feeling suicidal? What are the possibilities and risks of according spirituality some therapeutic value for those on the edge of the abyss of self-destruction? Can a person be deeply spiritual and still suicidal?"

Spirituality and Suicide Prevention
Further material from the Suicide Prevention Australia conference, including papers and links from the ABC religion web site The Sacred Site.

Mental Health Behind Bars
A recent report from ABC radio.

"A new groundbreaking study of the mental health of NSW prison inmates paints a very bleak picture indeed. But what comes first, the mental illness or the crime? This week on All in the Mind – what’s happening in the minds of people behind bars and how are their mental health needs being met?"

Access to the report: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/areas/corrections/docs/mental_illness_among_nsw_prisoners_2003.pdf

Toward understanding youth suicide in an Australian rural community
This article appeared in a recent issue of Social Science and Medicine. The link provides access to the abstract. You will need to contact your library to access the full text of the article.

Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour
Link to the table of contents of Volume 33 No 3

Issue 3 is now available. MCSP staff can contact Tracy to access it. Other readers should contact their local library.

All In The Mind 12/10/2003 - The Antidepressants Debate: Depressed, Bothered or Bewildered?

"In Australia, the new antidepressants have transformed the lives and suffering of many. But how much do we know about the side effects of these medications of the mind? The first of two programs from a vital public debate hosted by All in the Mind's Natasha Mitchell. Special guests include Dr David Healy, author of The Antidepressant Era and Let Them Eat Prozac; Professor Ian Hickie, Executive Director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute; Dr Grace Groom, Executive Director of the Mental Health Council of Australia, and others"

A Manual of Promising Suicide Prevention Strategies
A new resource from the Canadian Centre for Suicide Prevention is available for downloading from their site.

"What makes this manual unique?
Grounded in the best evidence available and written in a user-friendly manner, the manual recommends 17 promising youth suicide prevention strategies that have real potential to reduce suicide and suicidal behaviours amongst [Canadian] Aboriginal youth. The 17 strategies are broken into four categories: community renewal, community education, school strategies and youth/family strategies. Each strategy is described in detail, including the rationale for its use. Each strategy section includes: advice for implementation, indicators of success and ways to evaluate the program. There is a list of useful resources and organizations to help you get started as well as a real-life example of Canadian communities already using each strategy."

Suicide Among Canada's Aboriginal Peoples
The latest SIEC alert is also available, looking at the same topic.

Supported Community Living for People with Psychiatric Disability
A report by the Western Australian government into the needs of people with psychiatric disabilities living in the community.

The Draft Supported Accommodation Framework is also available from the WA Office of Mental Health.

"A proposed Supported Accommodation Framework has been developed by the Strategic Planning Branch, Office of Mental Health (OMH), to guide the development of the mental health supported accommodation services. The main purpose of the discussion paper is to provide an opportunity for you to give feedback about the direction of this development. An abbreviated version of the framework has been incorporated into the draft State Mental Health Strategic Plan."

Boosting Student Achievement: New Research on the Power of Developmental Assets
From the Search Institute:

"New studies suggest that developmental assets play a significant role in students' academic achievement across a wide range of students. In fact, developmental assets appear to have as much or more influence on student achievement as other demographic factors and school reform strategies. Thus, building developmental assets has great promise as a strategy for boosting student achievement."

Australia's Mental Health - from ABC Radio

Summary from the ABC website:

"Mental illness afflicts one in five Australians and it's often misrepresented in the media and in public discussion. Professor Rob Morrison from Flinders University in Adelaide attended a symposium which explored how mental health research dollars could be spent most cost-effectively and he talks about the quality and effectiveness of mental health research in Australia."

This story is an interesting companion piece to the Bulletin story of last week.

Dying shame : the state of Australia's mental health service

This recent article in The Bulletin magazine highlights the problems facing the mental health system in Australia. The report quotes from A Duty to Care a report featured in the Blog recently.

Put Children First

When Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley appeared on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope earlier in the year, a challenge was issued to advertising companies to create a campaign to put children and their needs on the agenda.

This site was launched to coincide with the release of the advertising campaign and has a range of material, resources and links and further development is promised. Take a look!

Suicide Prevention Research from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for MedicalResearch

Efficacy of Suicide Prevention Programs for Children and Youth
From the introduction:

In response to the increase of youth suicide starting in the 1950s, numerous suicide prevention programs have been developed and expanded since the early 1970s. Although extensive attempts have been made to prevent youth suicide, there is a lack of published research on suicide prevention programs.

Suicide Prevention Strategies: Evidence from Systematic Reviews
From the introduction:

This report provides an overview of the evidence from systematic reviews on the effectiveness of suicide prevention strategies.

Ten reviews were selected. Two reviews covered a wide range of suicide prevention strategies, three reviews focused on school-based suicide prevention programs for adolescents, four reviews assessed psychosocial and pharmacological treatments for suicidal patients, and one review examined long-term lithium treatment for patients with major affective disorders. Out of ten reviews, three reviews received a ‘good’ methodological quality rating.

Suicide, parasuicide, attempted suicide, and suicide prevention were not clearly defined in the reviews. In the future, clarifying these definitions will enable one to make comparisons among the various studies.

Thanks Bron!

Spirituality and Mental Illness

This new feature from ABC Health looks at the spiritual aspects of recovery from mental illness an psychological distress. It is an interesting follow-on from the theme of the last SPA conference.

Soul Mining - Features - Health Matters

There is a list of additional reading at the end of the article.

Treatment of Mentally Ill in Prisons and Jails

This article discusses the need for additonal followup treatment for the mentally ill who have been in jail.

"Ten percent of inmates in state institutions reported having a mental or
emotional condition."

Drug Benefit Trends 15(6) 2003, available from Medscape. Free registration may be required to access the site.

Crisis. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
Link to the table of contents of Volume 24 no 3 2003

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. Accessing the fulltext requires a password. If you work within MCSP or ICHR, the print journal is available in the ASPiRE collection. Contact Tracy for more information.

Mission Australia Release New Survey

Mission Australia have released the results of their 2003 survey into the concerns of Australian Youth.

Gene More Than Doubles Risk Of Depression Following Life Stresses

A recent New Zealand study has found that around 17% of the population have inherited a version of a gene that makes them less resiliant to stress, and at a greater risk of depression following multiple stresses. The press release about the findings is available here. The results were pubished in Science Volume 301, Number 5631, 18 Jul 2003, p. 386. Subscription is required to access the article online, but many large libraries subscribe to this journal.

Full citation:

Influence of Life Stress on Depression: Moderation by a Polymorphism in the 5-HTT Gene

Avshalom Caspi, Karen Sugden, Terrie E. Moffitt, Alan Taylor, Ian W. Craig, HonaLee Harrington, Joseph McClay, Jonathan Mill, Judy Martin, Antony Braithwaite, and Richie Poulton
Science Vol 301 No 5631 2003: 386-389

Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour
Link to the table of contents of Volume 33 No 3

Issue 3 has arrived and MCSP staff can contact Tracy to access it. Other readers should contact their local library.

Duty to Care

In 2001 the Department of Public Health at the University of Western Australia released a study titled "Duty to Care". This study examined physical illnesses among those with mental illness in Western Australia.

Findings included:

• "Almost half of all suicides in WA occurred in people who have used mental health services. The rate of suicide in people with mental illness has been increasing over the period 1980-1998 and almost entirely explains the net increase in total WA suicide rate.


• 44% of Hepatitis C cases and 19% of HIV cases in WA occurred in users of mental health services


• Death rates from all main causes are higher in people with mental illness. The overall death rate of people with mental illnesses was 2.5 times higher than the general population."

Coghlan R, Lawrence D, Holman CDJ, Jablensky AV (2001) Duty to Care: Physical Illness in People with Mental Illness. Perth: The University of Western Australia.

A technical report was produced along with stakeholder and consumer summaries. The reports are now available from the MCSP website. These reports, and other material that may be of interest to you are listed in the ASPiRE database.

Resources for Families
Today's posts are all resources for families and focus on parenting and communication skills.

The first is from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
A Family Guide to Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug Free covers a range of areas including teaching kids to choose friends wisely, setting rules and being a role model. The information is aimed mainly at the parents and carers of teenagers

Headroom is a great resource from South Australia that provides information for kids, parents/carers and professionals. Information for kids is divided in to two groups (6-12 and 12-18). The site focuses on good mental health resources.

Similar resources are available from the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia.

Finally, New South Wales provide a great range of parenting factsheets in a variety of languages. The lefthand pane provides access to other multilingual resources.

...and now for something completely different...
Todays entry has nothing to do with suicide prevention, but is about scientific publishing. Why you ask? Because it goes some way towards explaining the issues we face trying making information available in the Blog and in ASPiRE. While the Internet has revolutionised the way information is created and distributed, high quality information is not always available for free. The Public Library of Science may change that.

While you are at the ABC science site have a look around as they have some really interesting material. The health section is also really good.

If you are interested in accessing online journals, there are a number of collections that may be of interest. Not all of the material they list is available for free, and some requires free registration to access, but its worth a look.

PubList - The Internet List of Publications
PubList provides the web address of many journals. Scan it regularly as journals provide free access and withdraw it rapidly.

FreeMedicalJournals.com
A list of almost 1000 medical journal that are available for free online.

MedBioWorld List of Psychiatry Journals
Online journals in the area of psychiartry and psychology.

Finally, an information resources blog is now available. This covers tips, techniques, hints and help for searching and using information, both on the Internet, and in other formats.

Crisis. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
Link to the table of contents of Volume 24 no 2 2003

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. Accessing the fulltext requires a password. If you work within MCSP or ICHR, the print journal is available in the ASPiRE collection. Contact Tracy for more information

Substance Abuse in Combination with Other Mental Illnesses: Together, Do They Increase Suicide Risk?

SIEC (the Canadian Suicide Information and Education Centre) has released a new alert.

"Substance abuse has been implicated in suicide risk. This edition of SIEC Alert describes the prevalence of substance abuse worldwide and the relationship between substance abuse and suicide. The increase in suicide risk when substance abuse and mental illness are combined is described and discussed for the reader."

It is only available in pdf format, and can be accessed from the SIEC site.

Association between antidepressant prescribing and suicide in Australia, 1991-2000: trend analysis

This artilce from British Medical Journal (BMJ 2003;326:1008 10 May) looks at the association between antidepressants and suicide. The study concludes that:

"Changes in suicide rates and exposure to antidepressants in Australia for 1991-2000 are significantly associated. This effect is most apparent in older age groups, in which rates of suicide decreased substantially in association with exposure to antidepressants. The increase in antidepressant prescribing may be a proxy marker for improved overall management of depression. If so, increased prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in general practice may have produced a quantifiable benefit in population mental health."

Deliberate Self-harm Resources

The University of York's (UK) NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination has a number of publications about DHS.

Effective Health Care : Deliberate Self-harm
While this publication is a couple of years old (1998), and UK oriented, it has some excellent information on the background of DHS, statistics (1962-1996, UK), data on the effectiveness of various treatment options and an extensive bibliography.

The Centre's website has a couple of databases that provide access to their most recent publications, as well as projects underway in the area.

Pathways of Care for Young People who Present for Non-fatal Deliberate Self-harm
This report, produced by the Centre for Primary Health Care at the University of Queensland covers much of the same material from an Australian perspective.

Depression Resources
Real Men, Real Depression
The US National Institute of Mental Health has launched a program encouraging men to recognise depression and seek treatment for it. The site includes stories from a number of men who experienced depression, information about treatment options, symptoms etc. The "Getting Help" pages all refer to North American resources, so this should be noted if referring people to the site.

A useful Australian alternative is the BluePages site produced by the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. The Treatment and Help and Resources pages are a good compliment to the Real Men site.

UCLA School Mental Health Project
The Center for Mental Health in Schools site has a wealth of information about mental health within schools. The search page allows you to access groups of resources, both produced by the Center, and produced by other authors. There are excellent resources on topics such as depression, early childhood development, post traumatic stress and many others. Some of the material will have limited application outside of North America, but the majority will be of use world wide.

An excellent site. Thanks Sven!

New report from the Children of Parents with a Mental Illness Project
CPMI has announced the release of the draft report "Principles and Actions for Services and People Working with Children Of Parents With A Mental Illness" in electronic format.

This report provides advise and guidelines for those working with the families (particularly the children) of mental health services consumers.

‘OUT OF HOSPITAL, OUT OF MIND!’ A Review of Mental Health Services in Australia – 2003
This is the final report of an extensive review of mental health services in Australia, undertaken by the Mental Health Council of Australia. A summary of the findings is available too.

New report on mental health in Australia
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released today its new report on mental health services.

"Mental Health Services in Australia 2000-01 describes the characteristics and activity of Australia's mental health care services including ambulatory and residential mental health-related care provided by hospitals, community-based services, general practitioners, private psychiatrists and some disability support services. Information on the broad trends in mental health care is presented in easy-to-use summaries. Detailed statistics show the hospital care of patients admitted with a mental health-related diagnosis, the services, beds, staffing and expenditure in psychiatric hospitals and community-based services, and mental health-related medications prescribed by general practitioners and private psychiatrists."

Crisis. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
Link to the table of contents of Volume 24 no 1 2003

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. Accessing the fulltext requires a password. If you work within MCSP or ICHR, the print journal is available in the ASPiRE collection. Contact Tracy for more information

Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour
Link to the table of contents of Volume 33 No 1

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. MCSP has recently taken a subscription to this journal, so access to it should be available for ICHR staff soon. Contact Tracy for more information.

Indigenous Health Resources
The sites in todays update both focus on indigenous health resources.

Indigenous Australian Alcohol and Other Drugs Databases
This site provides access to a variety of resources related to alcohol and drug use among indigenous Australians. The bibliographic database provides access to over 600 books, reports and journal articles. Most items are not available in fulltext format, but can be obtained via document delivery from your local library. Contact Tracy for more information.

The Projects database provides detailed information about over 300 indigenous alcohol and drug projects. Information available includes project summaries, target groups, contact details and in some cases funding information.

Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
This site provides a great deal of high quality information about indigenous health issues. In particular it provides concise summaries of statistics and other relevant information in areas such as health outcomes, hospitalisation, health expenditure etc.

CommunityLIFE website
The CommunityLIFE website is now operating. CommuityLIFE aims to build community capacity for suicide prevention. The website provides links to a variety of useful information including good practice guidelines and funding sources, as well as links to suicide prevention resources including ASPiRE, SIEC and others.

The Australian Drug Information Network

"ADIN delivers alcohol and drug information to its website visitors who search ADIN’s large collection of quality-assessed websites and databases. Organisations and individuals can search and share relevant information on licit and illicit drug issues."

The databases this site links to provide a wealth of information about drug use, prevention, health etc, both in Australia and globally.

Some more resources from US National Institute for Mental Health
A Review of Suicide Assessment Measures for Intervention Research with Adults and Older Adults
A review and assessment of the measurement instruments that can be used to measure suicide intent in adults.

Reviews of Measures of Suicidal Behavior: Assessment of Suicidal Behaviors and Risk Among Children and Adolescents
The corresponding publication covering instruments for use with children and adolescents.

Issues to Consider in Intervention Research with Persons at High Risk for Suicidality
This publications looks a the risk issues involved in conducting research with those at a high risk of suicide. (thanks Marg)

Toolkit for getting through the drought
An excellent publication produced by Lifeline's "Just Ask" project. Other toolkits available at the Just Ask site include dealing with anxiety attacks, dealing with children with ADHD, and helping children cope after bushfires (look under "How can we help" and "Toolkits")

Suicide Research Program
"This report contains abstracts of suicide research projects funded in fiscal year 2002 by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH extramural support for research projects focused on suicide, or containing large suicide components, totaled approximately $26 million. The abstracts presented here are intended to serve as examples of the range and quality of
scientific research on suicide supported by NIMH.

A list of NIMH program staff who serve on the NIMH Suicide Research Consortium, and their areas of expertise, are listed at the back of this document. Potential grant applicants seeking consultation, and other persons interested in learning more about suicide research at NIMH, are invited to contact program staff."


Information about coping with traumatic events
This site from the US National Institute of Mental Health provides links to a number of resources for coping with traumatic events. There is material suitable for a number of audiences including both health professionals and the public. (thanks Sven)

Breast implantees have triple the suicide rate
An article from the ABC science website reporting the findings of an article in the latest edition of British Medical Journal. Link to the original BMJ article.

Media coverage and suicide
A story from the BBC about the influence of media and celebraties on suicide rates. It reports the findings of a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Link to the abstract. This journal is not availble in full text from UWA, but the article can be requested via document delivery if you are interested. Contact Tracy for more information.

An interesting tie-in with the theme of this year's SPA conference

Spirituality and attempted suicide among American Indians.
Social Science & Medicine 2003 Apr;56(7):1571-9.

This journal is available to ICHR staff in full-text format from the UWA library. Just search "Social Science & Medicine" in title in the catalogue, then follow the links to connect to the journal.

Welcome to the new suicide prevention web log or "blog".

This blog is maintained by the Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention in Western Australia. Your contribution of new resources for this blog are welcome. Please send suggestions to Tracy Barker

New resources
ASPiRE - Australian Suicide Prevention Information and Resource Exchange
A database of resources in the area of suicide prevention, developmental health and associated areas. Many items in the database are available electronically via links from the database, but other material will only be available via libraries. Contact your local library (public, university or college, corporate) for information about accessing the material.

---

Crisis. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
Link to the table of contents of Volume 23 no 4 2002
Link to the table of contents of Volume 23 no 3 2002

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. Accessing the fulltext requires a password. If you work within MCSP or ICHR, the journals are available in the ASPiRE collection. Contact Tracy for more information

Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour
Link to the table of contents of Volume 32 No 4
Link to the table of contents of Volume 32 No 3

Abstracts of articles are available online at the above links. All of v32 no3 is available online for free. MCSP has just taken a subscription to this journal, so access to it should be available for ICHR staff soon. Contact Tracy for more information.